I Survived my Month Without Chocolate!!!

  .... Basically the title says it all! I'm estatic that I accomplished my goal. I almost think that I deserve a medal for this feat! hahaha
      It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be when I first started. I think giving up something all together is much easier than simply allowing yourself some in moderation. Maybe that is just me.
     Ironically yesterday I received my two dance diet books in the mail.

   I have already begun thinking about the possibility of giving up any sweet things for 2 weeks until the Nutcracker auditions (I know, in May). It's not that I eat a lot of them at all, but I felt a lot better about myself since I gave up chocolate entirely. I'm quite optimistic because along with my new diet books I also received a necklace in the mail from my aunt that brings good luck. While I am not a superstitious person I'll take it as a sign!
    Any ways back to reading my books... I need to sew pointe shoes tonight too, but I am the queen of procrastinating any shoe sewing whatsoever, I think I might do it tomorrow, err sometime.

I love Patricia Barker's feet! I'm pretty sure these are hers because she does a lot of the Bloch ads. I had a weeks worth of master classes with her and could hardly concentrate on any of the combination because I would just stare at her feet ... everyone did. They are amazing!

Festival

   Last Saturday we had festival (competition). I am part of a group piece that one of our teachers choreographed. It is neoclassical and I really love it. Actually I always love his choreography, and his choice of music, style e.t.c.  It is always very powerful, and beautiful.
   The competition has been going on for a couple of months. We previously won first place in the ballet category so we went on to the "no borders" category. Which meant that we were up against all types of dancing. Jazz, hip hop, tap, break dancing, contemporary, everything! It is a really fun competition to watch because there are so many different types of dance to see. We got to watch after we had performed and were really impressed by everything!
     Then came the adjudication.
    We were pretty nervous, no one felt like we had performed very well and the other types of dance were so good! 3rd place was a different ballet/modern group, 2nd was a break dancing group that we expected to win. And the our group was announced. 1st place!!! We were very surprised!!!
    We had to perform against 3 other groups later that night for the "Grand Champion Prize". We didn't win although our performance went flawlessly, but most of us did not feel bad about losing because the group that won was amazing. It was a group of 6 young boys... break dancers. You would never guess they were so strong. They were doing back flips, tons of tricks, their timing was perfect, and their attitude was really great.  They were all soooooo enthusiastic on stage. They had everyone cheering and clapping along.  I really thought that they ought to win. I mean it is all taste, how do you judge classical ballet vs. break dancing? + They really deserved to win. Well that's all for now, I hope I didn't bore and confuse you too much! I'm just going to go off and practise my back flips.

    Jk, but I was stretching my feet while writing this. I stretch my feet underneath my chest of drawers almost every night. My feet used to be really, really bad but I stretch them a lot and do a lot of theraband exercise and they are much better now.
    Svetlana Zakharova's feet are amazing! She has such gorgeous feet. And legs, and body, and everything! I wish...
  

Scholarship Auditions

Maria Kochetkova in Raymonda SFB

 Today we had scholarship auditions at our school. This is the first year that they have ever had formal auditions for scholarships... It was quite the nerve-wracking process. A panel of all our teachers was set up in front of the studio and they sat and took notes while we did class.
    The class didn't go very well for me. I was quite nervous,  and I messed up quite badly on some of the combinations. Some things were good but the worst part of all of it was that I still haven't lost any weight. I have been working so hard but to no avail.  I have completely given up chocolate and have been eating so healthily. I've been having a smoothie in the morning, a bean salad for lunch, almonds and fruit as a snack, and my dinner mainly consists of vegetable and some sort of protein.
       You'd think I'd be  skinnier... However my energy has been quite a lot better than it used to be, that is good. I will stick to how I am eating now for at least a couple more weeks to see if my metabolism finally kicks in.
    Any ways I feel really bad about everything because I am trying so hard to lose weight and I really don't want my teachers to think that I don't care, or that I'm lazy, or that I am undedicated. It's very depressing.  Well that's my little rant for now. <3